


Spiders Can't See (Well)

by 24601problems



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Glasses, Homework, Irondad, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker Feels, Peter Parker Wears Glasses, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Spiders, Studying, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Whump, spiderson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/24601problems/pseuds/24601problems
Summary: Tony finds out that Peter wears glasses because spiders can’t see well.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 221





	1. Spiders Can't See (Well)

Before the spider bite, Peter Parker had impeccable eyesight. He wouldn’t say it was perfect, but he certainly never needed assistance from contacts or glasses to see. But after the bite? It turns out even though spiders have eight eyes, yep eight, they still can’t see all that well. Which explains the spidey-sense. Because spiders can’t see well, they rely on other senses to compensate.

Which is what Peter did for the first month or two after the bite, but a boy can only take so many headaches. Before long, he mentioned the headaches to May who immediately made an appointment with her optometrist for Peter. And he wasn’t surprised when he was told he needed to wear glasses full time.

With some persuading, he talked the doctor into also giving him a contacts prescription even though it was his first visit. Because while it totally fit that Peter Parker would wear glasses, there was no way that Spider-Man could ever be seen with a weakness. Which also meant that Peter Parker couldn’t wear his glasses to school because then Happy would see them when he picked him up for his Stark Industries internship.

So every morning for the past year, the first thing he did was put in his daily contacts. That is, until today, when he found he was out of contacts. He had meant to order more, but forgot.

Groaning, he weighed his options as he squinted at himself in the mirror. He could use the glasses he knows are in the nightstand drawer, but the frames were cracked and being held together by tape and a prayer. Alternatively, he could use his spidey-senses and literally feel his way through the day, so long as he didn’t have to look at too many details, or read anything from far away.

Glancing into his room to briefly consider sporting his specs, he rubbed his face and decided on the latter option. It would be fine. In most of his classes he sat towards the front, and there was no lab today in chemistry so he wouldn’t need to read the small print on the beakers. He had his internship after school today, but he could easily work on something that didn’t require too much reading or detail.

And so fine he was throughout the school day. Sure, it was a little tough to know what the teacher was writing on the board at times, and some of the numbers in math were a little harder to read, but he managed. The inevitable headache appeared in second period, but it wasn’t anything major or something he couldn't grin and bear. Finding Ned and MJ in the halls and lunch room was a breeze — he know their walking patterns and if he listened close enough, he could hear their conversation.

When the final bell rang and he stepped into the school parking lot, he was suddenly grateful for Mr. Stark’s flashiness. Without it, he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to find Happy’s impeccably clean, shiny, black Audi in the parking lot.

“Hey Happy!” Peter greeted as he slid into the backseat.

Grunting was Happy’s reply, and Peter knew by his grunt was a queue to not attempt to start a conversation. Which really, was perfect considering a quiet drive would give him a good 30 minutes to literally rest his aching eyes without disturbance.

“Kid, we’re here.” Peter heard as he opened his eyes. Unknowingly, he had drifted off.

“Oh! Thanks Happy,” Peter said as he opened the car door.

“You alright, kid?” Happy questioned Peter, looking him up and down for any sign or injury or sickness, something he knew the kid had a habit of hiding. Peter stood with the door open for a minute before answering.

“Oh yeah, Happy! Just didn’t have the best sleep last night. Thanks again for the ride!” Peter answered before shutting the door, waving, and walking into the building.

Knowing Tony was already in the lab, Peter heading straight down there and greeted his mentor.

“How was school?” Tony asked as a returned greeting.

“Oh it was fine,” Peter answered.

Accepting that as an adequate answer, the older man nodded and went back to his work. Peter contemplated what he could do that wouldn’t require too much attention to detail and wouldn’t involve him staring at holographic screen. His headache hadn’t gotten any worse, but it sure hadn’t gotten better. There was a rip in an older suit model, so realistically he could try to repair it.

Deciding with that option Peter gathered all the supplies he would need and got to work. He has sewn about a quarter of the rip when his headache started to become too much.

“Hey Mr. Stark, is there any tylenol down here?” He asked without looking up from his own work.

“Yeah, in the top cabinet of the bathroom. Not sure it will work on you though.” Tony answered while also not looking up from his own work.

“Wait,” Tony paused and put down the tools he was using. “Why do you need Tylenol?” He questioned the teen, turning around to look at examine him from his chair.

“I just have a little headache is all.” Peter said, still not looking up from his suit repair.

“So you’re telling me that Spider-man can actually get a headache?” Tony questioned with a raised brow while standing up to walk over to the boy.

“Yep.” Peter answered, not wanting to go into too much detail. Tony would probably make fun of him endlessly if he knew that Peter couldn’t see the threads he was stitching, much less across the lab they were working in.

“Are you sick?” Tony questioned.

“Nope,” Peter answered without moving and continuing to ‘work.’

“Why is it that you have a headache then?” Tony asked and started to make his way over to the boy.

Knowing the inevitable was going to happen, Peter answered honestly. “Because spiders can’t see well, apparently” Peter said, looking up momentarily to see Tony making his way across the room.

“What?” Tony started and paused to sniff and think for a moment before walking quickly over to Peter. Peter immediately stopped using the synthetic thread in his hand he was using to patch a rip in his suit. “Okay, nope, wait. You’re telling me that for I don’t know, almost a year, you haven’t been able to see?”

Peter started to shrink under his stare and suddenly wished his usual lab seat wasn't pushed close to a corner.

“Uh, well not exactly no. I just haven’t been able to see well, and if you think about it, not seeing al-“

“Nope, I don’t want to hear it, Peter,” Tony sighed and began to formulate his thoughts.

“But Mr. Stark, I haven’t been walking around, not-“

“And now I’ve got to hear it” Tony shook his head and threw up his hands.

“Not seeing because, well, I’ve been wearing contacts and I- I just forgot to order more so like really it’s not my fault,” Peter finished explaining, suddenly feeling like he was in trouble.

“So where are you glasses?” Tony questioned, knowing that Peter wouldn’t wear contacts every day and just not have any glasses for the worst case scenario. The kid had no self-preservation, but surely he wasn’t that oblivious.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Peter answered. “Uh, they’re just a li-little broken.”

“Nu-uh, I didn’t ask for the state of their being. Where?” Tony commanded, more than asked.

Thinking to the last place he saw them a couple of months ago, Peter answered, “Uh, somewhere in my room I guess? Maybe my nightstand?”

“Alright then,” Tony said and then walked out of the lab, leaving Peter sitting in his seat, which he didn’t realize until the other man’s presence was gone, that was literally backed into the corner. Raising his eyebrows, Peter thought about the interaction and let out a big breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

Why was Mr. Stark so mad? Peter just didn’t understand why the man was seemingly so angry at something that wasn’t even his problem. Surely his head and eye aches had no effect on the other man. Unless somehow it did. Did it? How could it? Was it bothering Mr. Stark that he wasn’t able to work? Mr.Stark didn’t know how to not work, so maybe he thought of Peter as being lazy because his work wasn’t up to par today.

Oh god, that was it. Mr. Stark now thought Peter was lazy. Which Peter thought, he guessed he was for not ordering new contacts. He knew he was running out, but between school, decathlon, patrols, and “field trips” to random countries like Germany, ordering a couple boxes of contacts was kind of the last thing on his mind. Mr. Stark must be so disappointed that his intern was so lazy and irresponsible.

With a groan, Peter closed his eyes and let his head hit the wall behind him, which reminded him of the headache situation he had going on. He figured now would be a great time to get some of the Tylenol Mr. Stark had mentioned, even if he had to take double the regular dose for it to have an effect.

Peter made his way to the bathroom, but before he could reach it, Mr. Stark was already walking back into the lab. Pausing, Peter stopped in the doorway of the bathroom to see if his mentor would speak to him. He could see his figure from across the room and could clearly see he was in the Iron Man suit, but could absolutely not read the man's expression. Was he mad?

"Lordy, can you stop squinting like that for a minute?" Tony asked Peter as he stepped out of the suit.

"Sorry?" Peter said shrugging his shoulders in a defensive motion.

Tony snickered and quickly made his way to his work station. Approximately 78 seconds later, Peter was still standing in the door when Tony walked over to him.

"Now close your eyes," Tony said to Peter. Peter looked at the man questioningly, but was met with a look that said 'don't try me' and quickly shut his eyes. He felt familiar frames slide onto his face, and immediately opened his eyes, relieved that he could see.

"Woah, Mr. Stark! How did you know my prescription and make these glasses so fast?!" Peter asked excitedly.

"Okay first, I didn't do any of those. Those are your glasses from your nightstand drawer, which is a total mess by the way." Tony started. Peter opened his mouth to defend his messy drawer. "Nope, zip it. This is where you listen. Do you know what your frames are made of? Metal. Know what my suit is made of ? That's right, also metal spiderling! Now, I understand all too well that glasses do break," Tony continued while referring to his own glasses on his face. "But you literally work with a genius who happens to fly around in a METAL suit. Whenever your glasses broke, why would you not ask me to fix them for you?"

"Is- is this where I can talk Mr. Stark?" Peter whispered before getting an eye-roll from his mentor. "Well, I just like didn't want you to think that Spider-Man was weak. And like to be honest, it's kind of embarrassing that I have literal super powers but have to wear glasses. That's the total opposite of what a superhero is! Look at Superman!"

Breathing heavily, Tony was silent for a moment before answering. "Okay first, you do know that Superman isn't real, right? Because if he isn't I would really love to know where he's been for the past couple of alien fights. Secondly, have you not noticed I wear glasses?!" Tony practically yelled.

Sheepishly, Peter answered, "Yeah yeah Mr. Stark, but you don't have like super DNA. Not that your DNA isn't super cool, but like your super power is that you're crazy smart and rich and have this really awesome-"

"While I would love for you to keep going, I get where you're coming from kid. But look at me," He waited for Peter to make eye contact with him. "I promise you that no one cares that you wear glasses, if that's what you're worried about - especially the Avengers. I wear them, Bruce wears them, hell - Fury doesn't even have two functioning eyes for Christ's sake. So don't pick this insignificant thing to be insecure about, capiche?"

Looking up at his mentor and smiling for the reassurance, Peter said, "Thanks Mr. Stark. I guess it was kind of a dumb thing to be so worried about. I gotta tell you, it's great to see again today though."

Ruffling his hair, Tony laughed. "Now, if you're done making a spectacle of yourself, can you come help me with this project?"

"Of course!" Peter practically yelled while he followed Tony to his workstation. "Wait! Mr. Stark, that was a pun!"

Rolling his eyes and smiling at the teenager, Tony began to explain what he was working on to Peter. And if Tony asked Friday to order Peter an extra pair of glasses because he knew the teen would inevitably break or lose his current pair, Peter was none the wiser.


	2. Stu(dent)dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next time Tony saw Peter wearing his glasses, it was shockingly because the kid was being responsible and rare occasion that he had one ounce of self-preservation.

Peter threw his pencil down on his desk and resisted the urge to scream as he ran his hands up and down his face. This physics problem was going to be the death of him. He was sure. Maybe May would include ‘Here lies Peter Parker, killed too young by a simple high school physics homework problem’ on his gravestone. 

Was he being dramatic? A little, yeah. 

But the most frustrating part of this stupid problem? He knew the problem was one he should be able to solve, but it was 3 in the morning and his brain just wasn’t working. 

Patrol had lasted a little later than normal, putting Peter past his ‘suggested’ curfew, pushing him to eat dinner and shower past his normal time, and he hadn’t had a chance to start his homework until two hours ago. 

The homework was due tomorrow in his first class though, so it had to be done. Even if it killed him. Which it might. 

Picking up his phone to check the time, he sighed when he saw 3:18 a.m. staring back at him. He went to put his phone down, but before he could he had an idea that may be slightly inconvenient. 

Before he could second guess himself, he was pressing the video call button on his phone to call Mr. Stark. He figured Mr. Stark hardly ever slept, so the chances of him being up was more probable than Peter figuring out this problem set on his own. 

“Peter, I swear that if you are bleeding-out in an alley in the middle of the night and way past your curfew I’m going to leave you there.” 

Rude. 

“Uh- hey Mr. Stark, glad to see you’re awake, I was hoping I didn’t wake you. Although now calling you to help with this seems way below your paygrade.” Peter rubbed the back of his neck before adjusting his glasses. 

“Spill, kid.” Tony responded. Did Peter need to know that he was almost asleep when he called? No. Obviously the kid needed help with something and Tony wasn’t not going to answer his call at 3 a.m. The kid wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important to him. 

“Well, I have a problem-“ Peter started. 

“Obviously” Tony interrupted.

“Ugh Mr. Stark. I have a physics problem.” Peter ran his hand through his hair, stressed out.

“You don’t look stuck to anything.” Tony replied as he got closer to his phone screen to peer through Peter’s camera on his phone. 

“No. It’s a school problem set and normally I would be able to solve a problem like this, but I just, my brain isn’t working tonight and I’m so tired and I just feel so stupid.” Peter’s voice broke at the end as he tried not to cry. Anyone would be emotional if they had woken up at 6 a.m. and were still up 21 hours later. He hid his head in his hands while he tried not to cry. 

“Hey, hey. Pete, it’s okay. Just breathe with me. Look at me and take a couple of deep breaths with me.” Tony paused and waited for Peter to look at the phone once more. “Ready? Great. In, and out. In, and out. Match my breath.” Tony continued to coach Peter through some deep breaths for a couple of minutes until he was sure Peter was composed. 

“Feel better?” Tony questioned sympathetically. 

“Yeah, thanks Mr. Stark, but I still have this problem to be done.” The teen offers a small, sheepish smile before picking up his pencil, ready to read the problem. 

“I know kid. Open the window and we can look at it.” Tony replied. 

“What? Why am I opening the window?” Peter scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. 

“Uh, because I’m outside of your window at 3:30 a.m. to help you with a your physics homework.” Tony tells him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“What?!” Peter shouted and jumped up to walk across his room to open his curtains. Sure enough, his mentor was hovering outside of his window in an Iron Man suit. 

Opening the window and stepping back, Peter scolded, “Mr. Stark! You didn’t have to fly all the way here to help me with a stupid homework problem!” 

“Pete, it’s not a problem, I was up anyway and I’m sure I can help,” Tony winked as the suit retracted back into the nano-tech arc reactor. 

“I’m sorry I made you come out all the way to Queens at this time Mr. Stark. Do you want some coffee? I can make you some coffee” Peter stammered. 

“No kid it’s fine. Now, tell me what kind of physics problem has my genius intern hung up?” Tony asked.

Peter replied, “Ugh, Oscillations. Ready? Here it is. A 5-kg mass attached to a linear spring undergoes simple harmonic motion along a frictionless tabletop with an amplitude of 0.35 m and frequency of 0.67 Hz.  
a. Explain what the two criteria are for simple harmonic motion.  
b. Calculate the value of the spring constant  
c. What is the ratio of the mass’s acceleration when it is at half its amplitude to its acceleration  
when it is at full amplitude?”

While Peter read out the question, Tony examined his appearance. A science pun t-shirt that looked like it was two sizes too big, red plaid pajama pants, curly hair that stuck out in random places, and glasses. The kid looked like he was ready for bed the second this physics problem was solved, but Tony needed to get a couple of words in before that could happen because there was no reason for Peter to be up this late. 

“Alright, pass it here because I honest to god was not listening that well,” Tony sniffed and looked down at the problem set on the paper he was handed. It really was a problem that Peter should have realistically been able to solve, but the teen had obviously had a long day. 

“Okay, let’s get to solving this problem.” Tony declared and put the paper down in front of Peter while he leaned over to explain the concepts. 

“Oh right!” Peter excitedly interrupted when Tony was half-way through explaining how to calculate the value of the spring constant. “Even with the minus sign in the Hooke's law equation, k is a positive number, because the slope in the Hooke's law graph is positive!” 

With a positive hum, Tony watched Peter solve and scribble the answer to the problem. 

Peter looked up at Tony through his glasses and waited for his mentor to confirm that he had arrived at the correct answer. 

“Right and so t he acceleration is proportional to the force which is proportional to the displacement according to Hooke’s Law, therefore the ratio of?” Tony prompted Peter to answer the third part of the question. 

“The ratio of a/a0 is 0.5!” Peter answered happily before writing the response down. He shut his textbook and notebook, and exhaled. “Thank Jesus that I’m finished.” 

“My name is actually Tony Stark.” The older man retorted with smirk on his face. 

“Oh,” Peter laughed. “Thanks for coming over to help me with something so basic Mr. Stark. You didn’t have to.” Peter stood up from his desk chair, stretched and yawned. 

“Not a problem kid, but no sleep yet. You and I have to have a quick talk.” 

Peter sat on his bed quietly before Tony started, “First, why are you up doing homework so late? And answer honestly, I don’t want you beating around the bush.” 

“Honestly? I got in from patrol later than normal. But there was a little girl who had lost her mom and so I had to help get her home, but she couldn’t remember where she lived, so that took a while, and-“ Peter hushed when Tony help up his hand. 

“Okay I get it, hero’s duty called. Next question: you should have been able to finish that problem on your own. Have you been eating and getting enough sleep?” Tony sat down next to Peter on the bed. 

“I mean no less than usual,” Peter snorted. 

“I didn’t ask for a change in routine, Peter. You know your metabolism is faster than an average human’s, which means you need more sleep and food than the average person. You remember what Bruce said,” Tony explained while looking at Peter who obviously looked uncomfortable under the older man’s gaze. 

“I know, but I feel guilty if I’m sleeping and Spider-Man could be out there helping people in trouble.” He says quietly, crossing his arms and gazing past Tony out the window. 

“If you don’t take care of yourself, there won’t be anyone to save the people of Queens. You can’t run yourself ragged to save everyone. You have to put yourself first, buddy.” Tony breaths out. 

“I guess.” Peter admits with a shrug. 

“Well, to make sure you’re getting enough fuel for your body, I want you to stop either here or at the tower before you head out on patrol. Get a snack and maybe snag a 20 minute nap if necessary.” Peter opened his mouth to protest. “Nope, don't want to hear it spiderling, it’s not up for debate. It will take 40 minutes tops and it’s literally for your health, capiche?” Tony questioned, waiting for a response.

“Fine.” Peter mumbled before yawning once more.

“Alright, I have one more question and then I will let you hit the hay.” Peter raised his eyebrows and waited for the question. “Are you out of contacts again? Do you need me to get Friday to put them on automatic order?” 

Chuckling Peter replied and lifted his glasses off his face with one hand, “Nah. I just didn’t feel like putting more contacts in once I got out of the shower. The plan was to do my homework quickly and then get to bed, but we know how that went. Plus, my eyes were a little dry.” 

Nodding in understanding Tony stood up from the bed. “Hm, I’m actually impressed. You actually made a smart decision to listen to your body.” 

Rolling his eyes, Peter threw a pillow at the older man. “Whatever Mr. Stark. Thanks again for coming help me. I don’t want to kick you out, but I do kind of want to sleep before the sun comes up…” Peter trailed, hoping he wouldn’t have to directly tell his mentor to get out of his room so he could sleep. 

“Wow, you’re kicking me out?” Tony clutched his hands tightly to his chest mockingly. “I’m leaving,” He said and put his hand over the arc reactor before asking. “But underoos?” 

"You should wear the glasses more often. They suit you and will give your eyes a break.” Peter secretly smiled at the compliment, but outwardly snorted. Tony tapped the arc reactor twice and soon was covered in metal. 

“Wait! Mr. Stark!” 

“Yes?” Tony stopped with one leg out of the window. 

“Can you throw me my pillow back?” Peter looked at him with the biggest puppy dog eyes he had seen. 

“Only for you, Specs.”


End file.
